Formentera's Office of Social Welfare reports that administration officials met today with representatives of the senior-citizens group in la Mola to sign a new pact for 2018. The agreement, which sets out the details of the Council's lease of la Mola's administrative and cultural complex la Casa del Poble to the Associació de Majors del Pilar, involves how the space is used and the activities there funded.

Under the agreement, the €30,000 the seniors' group receives from the Council will fund the Casa del Poble's maintenance and services along with costs of promoting and managing activities for local groups and the nearby community in 2018.

The Associació de Majors hasn't just got deep roots in la Mola, it is a not-for-profit group which, since its founding, has played a de facto role as driver of cultural and social events promoting community in the neighbourhood. The Council began officially entrusting the group with those functions in 2016.

Included in the agreement are a space for the Associació's own use as well as a multipurpose hall where local associations can congregate, hold conferences, talks, small-scale concerts and other activities.

Members of the Associació will have keys to the Casa del Poble's computer lab and Council office. Though not included in the lease agreement, the Associació can facilitate their access and use to the Casa del Poble's visitors.

Describing the atmosphere at the Casa del Poble as “enriching for all involved”, Council president Jaume Ferrer highlighted the Associació's role in recent years “driving a vibrant social and cultural atmosphere in la Mola”and “putting the Casa del Poble on the map in terms of local programming and turning it into a meeting place for diverse segments of the population”.

Administration and coordination at the Casa del Poble are the remit of the Formentera Island Council. These are overseen by the appropriate department in line with the associated regulation.

Formentera's Office of Social Welfare announces that tomorrow will mark the start of the Universitat Oberta per a Majors (“Open University for the Aged”) 2018 academic year. An initiative of the Universitat de les Illes Balears, the UOM is coordinated jointly by the Council, Fundació la Caixa and El Corte Inglés.

The seven-part lecture series will play out across Formentera's social centres for the elderly (three each in Sant Francesc and Sant Ferran and one in la Mola) and will focus on a range of topics chosen by the clubs themselves.

The Council backs activities that encourage learning and active lifestyles as a path to wellness and independence.

The Formentera Council's Office of Social Welfare reports that the island's adult care centre, the Centre de Dia, will host from next Thursday (February 15) a course on dependent individuals in the public health system.

The nine-month course, dubbed Tramuntana VII, will play out between February and November. Students will be trained to work in the service of dependent people in their particular arena of public health. They will learn to apply strategies developed by the appropriate interdisciplinary team and follow the steps to nurture and enhance care-recipients' personal autonomy and their interactions with their surroundings.

The programme includes 385 hours of course work and 875 hours of paid work experience, with two hours of class time and five and a half hours of work per day, at the Centre de Día or in the Council's at-home care service (SAD) and under the supervision of an instructor/course director.

Students will be paid €1,021.01 for each month of the course, in addition to accruing social security. When the course ends, participants will have the opportunity to build on their expertise, working in the field with individuals with physical, mental or sensory disabilities, or carrying out work in public health institutions.

Tramuntana VII and the accompanying job insertion programme are projects of SOIB, the employment office in the Balearic Islands, and have a budget of €130,219.33.

Carnaval celebrations came early this year for elderly individuals at Formentera's adult care centre. All told, 25 seniors and five staff members took part in the popular holiday first by designing and fashioning, and then donning fancy-dress getups. The theme? Poker cards.

Black spades and clubs and red hearts and diamonds were the adornments on the decidedly multifarious deck of human cards, adding a splash of colour to activities at Formentera's Centre de Dia.